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Nubia and Egypt
Newer research on cultural linkages between Nubia, the Sudan and Egypt Newer studies (Wendorf 2001, Wilkinson 1999, et al.) confirm these older analyses. Excavations from Nabta Playa, located about 100km west of Abu Simbel for example, suggest that the Neolithic inhabitants of the region were migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, based on cultural similarities and social complexity which is thought to be reflective of Egypt's Old Kingdom.[2] Other scholars (Wilkinson 1999) present similar material and cultural evidence- including similarities between predynastic Egypt and traditional African cattle-culture, typical of Southern Sudanese and East African pastoralists of today, and various cultural and artistic data such as iconography on rock art found in both Egypt and in the Sudan.[3] Recent data from other research suggests numerous trade contacts between the Nile Valley peoples from early times. The excavations of German archaeologist Gunter Dreyer (1999) at Predynastic Abydos for example unearthed obsidian bows, a material traced to the nearby Sudan or Ethiopia. Excavations at Hierakonpolis by archaelogist Renee Friedman (1998) also demonstrates ritual masks similar to those used further south of Egypt, and significant amounts of obsidian, also traced to Ethiopian quarry sites.[4]. As regards population types and origins, one contemporary review of older evidence acknowledges that "the ancient Egyptians, especially southern Egyptians, exhibited physical characteristics that are within the range of variation for ancient and modern indigenous peoples of the Sahara and tropical Africa."[5] Nubia and the Early Egyptian Dynasties Nubia also figures in the archealogical research of scholar Bruce Williams, who along with other writers, suggest a Nubian influence underlying the establishment of the Egyptian state.[6] Most scholars see limited evidence of Nubian statebuilding in the further north (Lower Egypt),[7] but Williams focuses on the south, based on the initial predominant influence of the south, closest to Nubia, and various cultural linkages with the south such as discovery of the Qustul incense burner and of a city at Kerma dating back to 4,500 BCE.[8] A number of scholars demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians were closely related to Nilo/Sudanic peoples like Nubians, sharing substantial genetic admixture, and cultural elements such as the pharonic structure (Keita 1992, Krings et al. 1999, Williams 1999, Yurco, 1989).[9] Some research links these relationships as extending not simply to ordinary farmers, pastorialists or hunter-gathers but to elite stations as well. One such study for example shows the presence of individual rulers buried in high-status Egyptian sites at Naqada, and that these persons were more related morphologically to populations in Northern Nubia, than those in Southern Egypt.[10] The recent excavations of Swiss archealogist Charles Bonnet also confirm the linkages between Nubia and Egypt via excavations at Kerma (Charles Bonnet and Dominique Valbelle, The Nubian Pharaohs).[11] A number of writers dispute any claim that the Nubian kings were responsible for the genesis of the Egyptian monarchies that followed.[12] Williams however notes that his research advanced no claim of a Nubian origin or genesis for the pharonic monarchy. Instead he holds that the archaeological data shows Nubian linkages and influence in helping to "fashion pharaonic civilization." Such data includes detailed excavations of the burial place of the Nubian rulers with date stamps well before the historical First Dynasty of Egypt. The size and wealth of the tombs were also vastly greater than that of the well-known Abydos tombs in Egypt.[13] Nubian-Egyptian warfare: political not 'racial' Mainstream Egyptologists such as F. Yurco note that among foreign peoples, the Nubians were closest ethnically to the Egyptians, shared the same culture in the predynastic period, and used the same pharaonic political structure. [14] This is confirmed by a wealth of data on hand as noted above, making problematic various attempts to portray Nubia and its peoples as primarily foreign migrants, or to portray Nubia as an isolated backwater of Egypt useful primarily as an area of conquest.[15] The relationship between Nubia and Egypt was complex, involving military raids, expeditions and conquest by the Egyptians, subjugation in turn of Egypt by Nubia based kings, pharaohs of Nubian origin, trade interactions and cultural influence both ways from the earliest times and down through the centuries. According to Williams, attempts to downplay data from the Nubian excavations "arbitrarily dismiss important bodies of evidence, and belong to an age when broad assumptions of 'cultural retardation' went unchallenged."[16] A 1999 DNA study on gene flow[17] as noted above, confirms the genetic linkages between Egypt and Nubia, and affirms Yurco's observation as to the ethnic closeness and political rather than racial differentiation between Egyptians and Nubians. These data and historical background call into question assertions by some classicist historians (Snowden, Vermeule, et al) that suggest 'racial' wars between Nubians and Egyptians or high degrees of 'racial' differences between them.[18]Ironically noting that war between ethnically related neighboring European nations like France and Germany is not considered 'racial' war, one mainstream anthropologist confirms Yurco, stating: "the antagonisms between Kush and Egypt were political and not racial."[19] The DNA analysis also confirms the observation that the peoples of the Nile Valley were one population continuity,[20] sharing not only culture but genes that flowed up and down the Nile. This contradicts the Aryan model's attempts to dice up the two ancient peoples into neatly assigned racial categories or zones such as 'Caucasoid,' 'Mediterranean Race,' 'Negroid' or 'Hamite.'[21] New Kingdom Nubia became part of the Egyptian empire Spurred by threats from the south, Egypt’s New Kingdom pharaohs mounted military campaigns against Nubia, and by the Reign of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) Egyptians controlled Nubia to the 4th cataract. An Egyptian govenor administered the country called Kush and ensured the flow of Nubian gold to Egypt. Nubia also contributed exotic products such as animal skins, ivory, and ebony as well as dates, cattle, and horses prized for their quality. Despite being required to send many rich resources to Egypt, Nubia prospered during this period. Many Egyptians settled in Nubia, and Nubians moved north to Egypt. Egyptians build large temples and monuments in Nubia Egyptian pharoahs constructed temples throughout Nubia to honor Egyptian dieties, gods unique to Nubia, and themselves as divinities. The most important religious site in Nubia was dedicated to the Egyptian state god Amun. It was located at the foot of a sacred mountain (modern Gebel Barkal) at the frontier settlement of Napata near the 3rd cataract. Started by Thutmose III, this temple complex was enlarged by later pharaohs. New Kingdom Egyptian pharaohs conducted many campaigns to bring Nubia under Egyptian control. By the time of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) Nubia had been a colony for two hundred years, but its conquest was recalled in a painting from the temple Ramesses II built at Beit el-Wali in Northern Nubia. It was the subject of epigraphic work by the Oriental Insitute during the Nubian salvage campaign of the 1960s. The epigraphic drawing of the painting is shown below. Edith R. Sanders, 'The Hamitic hypothesis: its origin and functions in time perspective', Journal of African History (Vol. 10, no. 4, 1969), pp. 521-32 References # Helplease.com # Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild, Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara: Volume 1: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa, (Springer: 2001) # Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge, 1999, pp. 45-182 # John Gledhill, Barbara Bender, Mogens Trolle Larsen, (eds), State and Society: The Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and political centralization, (London: Taylor and Francis Group: 1998), pp. 192-214; see also Vivian Davies and Renee Friedman, Egypt Uncovered, (Stewart Tabori & Chang: 1998), pp. 5-87 # Nancy C. Lovell, “ Egyptians, physical anthropology of,” in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. Kathryn A. Bard and Steven Blake Shubert, ( London and New York: Routledge, 1999) pp 328-332 # Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa: Their Interaction - Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, by Joseph O. Vogel, AltaMira Press, (1997), pp. 465-472; # The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2000)p. 42-64 # Bruce Williams, 'The lost pharaohs of Nubia', in Ivan van Sertima (ed.), Egypt Revisited (New Brunswick, NJ, Transaction, 1993). # Frank l'engle Williams, Robert L. Belcher, and George J . Armelagos, "Forensic Misclassification of Ancient Nubian Crania: Implications for Assumptions about Human Variation," Current Anthropology, volume 46 (2005), pages 340–346 # Tracy L. Prowse, Nancy C. Lovell. Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 101, Issue 2, October 1996, Pages: 237-246 # Charles Bonnet and Dominique Valbelle, The Nubian Pharaohs: Black Kings on the Nile, (AUC Press: 2007), pp. 34-183 # Bruce Williams "The Lost Pharoahs of Nubia," Archaelogy 33, no 5 (September-October 1980): 14-21; See also W.Y. Adams, "Doubts About the Lost Pharoahs," JNES 44 (1985) # Bruce Williams, "Forbears of Menes in Nubia: Myth or Reality," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 15-26 # F. J. Yurco, 'Were the ancient Egyptians black or white?', Biblical Archeology Review (Vol 15, no. 5, 1989), pp. 24-9, 58. # Sanders, op. cit # Williams, op. cit # Krings, et al, op. cit # Aaron Kamugisha, "Finally in Africa? Egypt, from Diop to Celenko," (Race & Class, Vol. 45, No. 1, 31-60 (2003)- http://wysinger.homestead.com/finally.html # Kamugisha, op. cit., quoted by S.O.Y Keita # Yurco, 'An Egyptological Review" 1986.. op. cit # Edith R. Sanders, 'The Hamitic hypothesis: its origin and functions in time perspective', Journal of African History (Vol. 10, no. 4, 1969), pp. 521-32 # :Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508 See Also * Issues in research methodology on Nubian and Nile Valley peoples